3 Things to Do in Your 30s to Set Yourself Up for a Secure Retirement

When you're in your 30s, your job and your family might occupy most of your brain space. And retirement may be the last thing on your mind.

That's understandable. It's hard to think about the future when you're focused on trying to pay your bills and manage what could be a pretty busy household.

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But you should know that making a few key financial moves in your 30s could set you up for a secure retirement in your 60s, or whenever you decide to bring your career to a close. Here are three moves to focus on during your 30s you might truly appreciate later.

1. Contribute steadily to an IRA or 401(k)

Funding a retirement account in your 30s may be tough if you've also got a mortgage to pay, student loans to deal with, and hefty day care expenses. But the sooner you begin steadily contributing to an IRA or 401(k) plan, the more time you'll give your money to grow. That could spell the difference between having enough savings in retirement or falling short.

Let's imagine you don't start saving for retirement until age 40, and you retire at 67, which is Social Security's full retirement age for anyone born in 1960 or later. If you're able to contribute $500 a month to an IRA or 401(k), and your portfolio gives you a yearly 8% return, which is a bit below the stock market's average, you could be sitting on about $524,000 by the time you end your career.

Now that's certainly a nice amount of money. But look what happens if you start saving that $500 a month eight years earlier at age 32.

In that case, with all other things being equal, you could end up retiring with $1.033 million -- roughly twice as much savings as in the earlier scenario. So as tough as it may be to find the money for retirement savings in your 30s, it's certainly worth making the effort.

2. Invest in stocks to fuel your savings' growth

The stock market can be extremely volatile, and it's hard not to get rattled by it. But don't let that fear stock you from investing your retirement savings in stocks. When you're in your 30s and retirement is decades away, it's important to take on some risk so your money is able to grow at a pace that beats inflation.

The 8% return we used in the example above? That's realistic with a stock portfolio. If you invest your retirement savings in more conservative assets, like bonds and cash, you may end up with a much lower return -- and a lot less money to live on later in life.

Let's say you contribute $500 a month to a retirement account between ages 32 and 67, but your portfolio only gives you a 3% annual return. In that case, you'd be looking at about $363,000 in retirement savings -- not over $1 million.

If you're not comfortable putting together a portfolio of stocks, you could always invest your money in S&P 500 ETFs. That gives you exposure to the 500 largest publicly traded companies by market cap.

3. Eliminate high-interest debt

The more money you owe on credit cards and expensive loans, the less you'll have available to save for retirement. Your 30s are a great time to chip away at high-interest debt. And you may want to tackle your various balances in order of highest interest rate to lowest.

One thing that might help is a lower-interest consolidation loan. If you own a home, a home equity loan might serve this purpose. Otherwise, you can look at getting a personal loan. If you have good credit, you may be able to qualify for an affordable interest rate that makes your debt cheaper to pay off.

While you may not be actively thinking about retirement in your 30s, it's an important milestone to plan for throughout your career. Aim to make these moves so that by the time your senior years arrive, you'll be in a strong position to retire securely.

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